GOETS IS CLEARED IN SUBWAY ATTACK

GOETS IS CLEARED IN SUBWAY ATTACK; GUN COUNT UPHELD; ACQUITTAL WON IN SHOOTING OF 4 YOUTHS - PRISON TERM POSSIBLE ON WEAPON CHARGE

By KIRK JOHNSON

Published: June 17, 1987

Bernhard H. Goetz was acquitted by a jury yesterday of the attempted murder of four teen-agers on a Manhattan subway train in December 1984. But the jury convicted him of illegal weapons possession for the gun used in the shootings.

The verdict, after a tumultuous seven-week trial in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, cleared Mr. Goetz of 12 of the 13 charges in the indictment against him, including 10 major felonies.

It also represented a complete rejection of the argument by the Manhattan District Attorney's office that Mr. Goetz had acted irrationally in believing that he needed to use deadly force against the youths, one of whom remains partly paralyzed. Although Mr. Goetz could still receive a prison sentence on the weapons charge, the penalties are a fraction of what he might have faced.

Mr. Goetz, a 39-year-old electrical engineer who said he began carrying a weapon illegally after being beaten in a mugging in 1981, became the center of an international debate over the use and limits of deadly force in self-defense. And the judge warned the jurors late yesterday afternoon that the emotions raised by the case would not be abated by their verdict. #30 Hours of Deliberations ''This has been the most difficult case of our time,'' the judge, Acting Justice Stephen G. Crane, told the packed courtroom after the verdict had been delivered by the jury foreman, James M. Hurley. ''There will be criticism and there will be support,'' Justice Crane told the jurors. ''But whatever is thought about your verdict, you have the confidence of the court.''

Mr. Hurley read the verdict to the courtroom at about 4:10 P.M., after more than 30 hours of deliberations since last Friday. For 10 minutes, the built-up tensions of the trial rippled through the room as Mr. Hurley read through the list. There were murmurs from the spectators as the serious charges ticked by, but no disturbances or outbursts, and the more than a dozen court officers posted throughout the room were not needed.

Standing at the defense table, Mr. Goetz smiled nervously and appeared to sigh as the verdict sheet was read, his shoulders rising and falling as each verdict was rendered.

As those in the courtroom gallery strained forward, Mr. Hurley clearly enunciated the panel's findings. ''Not guilty,'' he repeated firmly 12 times in succession after the single conviction on the indictment's first charge.

Mr. Goetz, a tall, gangly man who has not made a public statement since the beginning of the trial in April, then leaned over, according to one of his lawyers, Mark M. Baker, and said simply, ''Can I go home now?''

''All he wants right now is to fade into the woodwork,'' another defense attorney, Barry I. Slotnick, said at a news conference outside the courthouse after the verdict. ''This has been a terrible chapter in his life - he would like to go back to being an anonymous stranger in the streets of New York.''

According to Mr. Baker, Mr. Goetz wanted to make a statement ''to thank the people of New York for their support'' but was afraid to appear before the shouting and shoving mob of about 200 reporters outside the court. Instead, he was escorted to a waiting limousine and whisked away.

One woman was reportedly injured when pushed against a parked car by a television camera crew, and Mr. Baker said the jostling had aggravated a herniated disk condition in his neck. Victory Signs From Jurors

Several of the jurors, who were all picked up by bus at the court's rear entrance, flashed victory signs with their fingers through the bus windows.

After leaving the courthouse, Mr. Goetz returned to his apartment in the Courtney House at 55 West 14th Street. Around 1 A.M., he came down briefly to the lobby to pick up three helium-filled balloons and a basket filled with food from the lobby attendant, then returned to his apartment.

An underlying but often unspoken element in the case was the issue of race; Mr. Goetz is white and the four youths he shot are black. Despite a Federal civil-rights investigation after the shooting that concluded that Mr. Goetz's main motivation had been fear rather than race, and even though race never became an issue in the trial itself - in which the jury consisted of 2 blacks and 10 whites - the questions were revived outside the courthouse after the verdict. In loud, angry arguments, Mr. Goetz's supporters and detractors differed on the rightness or wrongness of what the jury had done.

Mr. Goetz's single conviction in the case is a Class D felony that could carry a sentence of up to seven years in prison. However, unlike some of the other charges in the indictment -notably attempted murder and first-degree assault - the conviction, for carrying a loaded, unlicensed weapon in a public place, carries no statutory minimum sentence and no mandatory prison time.

Although the law states a ''presumption'' of a one-year prison sentence, Justice Crane is under no obligation to impose one. Sentencing has been scheduled for Sept. 4. No Decision on Appeal

Mr. Slotnick said no decision had been made on whether to appeal that conviction. ''Right now we're not thinking too clearly,'' he said. ''We'll leave the legal decisions for tomorrow.''